In this post, we will see how to retrieve list of followers for a document in Office 365 SharePoint site using .NET Client Object Model (CSOM).

Create a Console application and name it as ‘GetFollowers’

Add a reference to the following assemblies to the Console application.

Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll
Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll
Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.UserProfiles.dll

Add a new C# class and name it as GetFollower.cs

Copy and paste the following code

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.UserProfiles;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Social;
using System.Security;

namespace GetFollowers
{
    public class GetFollowers
    {

        public void RetrieveFollowedCount()
        {
            using (var oClientContext = new ClientContext(“https://yoursite.sharepoint.com/”))
            {

                string UserName = “userid@yoursite.onmicrosoft.com”;
                string Password = “password”;

                SecureString oSecureString = GetSecureString(Password);

                oClientContext.Credentials = new SharePointOnlineCredentials(UserName, oSecureString);

                //Instantiate SocialFollowingManager instance
                SocialFollowingManager oSocialFollowingManager = new SocialFollowingManager(oClientContext);

                //Instantiate SocialActorInfo class
                //SocialActorInfo oSocialActorInfo = new SocialActorInfo();
                //oSocialActorInfo.ContentUri = sDocUrl;
                //oSocialActorInfo.ActorType = SocialActorType.Document;

                //Invoke this private method to get the count of followed documents and sites
                GetFollowedCount(oClientContext, oSocialFollowingManager);

                //Invoke this private method to get actual list of documents and sites (objects)
                GetFollowedDocuments(oClientContext, oSocialFollowingManager);

                    Console.ReadLine();

            }
        }

        private static void GetFollowedCount(ClientContext oClientContext, SocialFollowingManager oSocialFollowingManager)
        {
            //Set the SocialActorType as documents to get count of documents followed by user
            ClientResult<int> oFollowedDocsCount = oSocialFollowingManager.GetFollowedCount(SocialActorTypes.Documents);
            oClientContext.ExecuteQuery();
            Console.WriteLine(“n”+”Total number of documents followed   :” + oFollowedDocsCount.Value.ToString());

            //Set the SocialActorType as documents to get count of sites followed by user
            ClientResult<int> oFollowedSiteCount = oSocialFollowingManager.GetFollowedCount(SocialActorTypes.Sites);
            oClientContext.ExecuteQuery();
            Console.WriteLine(“n”+”Total number of sites followed    :” + oFollowedSiteCount.Value.ToString());

            //Set the SocialActorType as documents to get count of user followed by user
            ClientResult<int> oFollowedUserCount = oSocialFollowingManager.GetFollowedCount(SocialActorTypes.Users);
            oClientContext.ExecuteQuery();
            Console.WriteLine(“n”+”Total number of users followed    :” + oFollowedUserCount.Value.ToString());
        }

        private static void GetFollowedDocuments(ClientContext oClientContext, SocialFollowingManager oSocialFollowingManager)
        {

            ClientResult<SocialActor[]> oSocialActors = oSocialFollowingManager.GetFollowed(SocialActorTypes.Documents);
            oClientContext.ExecuteQuery();

            foreach (SocialActor oSocialActor in oSocialActors.Value)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(“n”+”Name of followed document    :”+oSocialActor.Name);
                Console.WriteLine(“n”+”Document uri    :”+oSocialActor.ContentUri);
                Console.WriteLine(“n”+”Status    :”+oSocialActor.Status);

            }
        }

        //this method formats the input string into array of characters and place into SecureString object
        private static SecureString GetSecureString(String Password)
       {
           SecureString oSecurePassword = new SecureString();

           foreach (Char c in Password.ToCharArray())
           {
               oSecurePassword.AppendChar(c);

           }
           return oSecurePassword;
       }

       
        }
   
}

The whole idea is that we are leveraging GetFollowedCount  method of SocialFollowingManager class to get count of documents and sites and we are leveraging GetFollowed method of SocialManager class to actually find out the documents (in the above).

Invoke this class from Program.cs

static void Main(string[] args)
       {

           GetFollowers oGetFollowers = new GetFollowers();

           oGetFollowers.RetrieveFollowedCount();
       }

Run the application and we will see the results below.

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In this article, I’d be covering on how to programmatically follow a document in Office 365 SharePoint Site using .NET Client Side Object Model (CSOM). I will be using SharePointOnlineCredentials available in Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime assembly to connect to Office 365 SharePoint site. In my previous posts related to Office 365, I was leveraging the MSOnlineClaimsHelper (Active Authentication) by Wictor Wilen, which is still valid and I believe the same functionality has been brought into SharePointOnlineCredentials class..

Create a Console Application in Visual Studio 2013 and name it as FollowDocument

Create a new class by name FollowDocument.cs

Add reference to the following assemblies in FollowDocument.cs

Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll
Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll
Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.UserProfiles.dll

Add the following namespaces to FollowDocument.cs
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client;
using System.Security;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.UserProfiles;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Social;

Add a public method named StartFollowing with following code snippet

using (var context = new ClientContext(“https://sharepointsundar.sharepoint.com/”))
            {
                String docurl = “https://yoursite.sharepoint.com/Shared%20Documents/HOL_High%20Trust%20Provider%20App.docx”;
             
                String UserName = userid@yoursite.onmicrosoft.com;
                String Password = “your password”;

                SecureString SecurePassword = GetSecureString(Password);                            
                context.Credentials = new SharePointOnlineCredentials(UserName, SecurePassword);              

                //Instantiate SocialFollowingManager instance
                SocialFollowingManager oSocialFollowingManager = new SocialFollowingManager(context);

                //Instantiate SocialActorInfo class
                SocialActorInfo oSocialActorInfo = new SocialActorInfo();
                oSocialActorInfo.ContentUri = docurl;
                oSocialActorInfo.ActorType = SocialActorType.Document;

                //Check whether the current user is already following the item
                ClientResult<bool> bFollowFlag = oSocialFollowingManager.IsFollowed(oSocialActorInfo);
                context.ExecuteQuery();
                Console.WriteLine(“Is the current user following this document:” + bFollowFlag.Value);

                if (! bFollowFlag.Value)
                {
                    //If the document is not already followed by the user, start following it
                    ClientResult<SocialFollowResult> oResult = oSocialFollowingManager.Follow(oSocialActorInfo);
                    context.ExecuteQuery();
                }                                          

                               Console.ReadLine();           
            }       
        }

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In the above method, we are connecting to Office 365 SharePoint site using SharePointOnlineCredentials class, instantiating the SocialFollowingManager class and the SocialActorInfo class. We check for the status of Following of a Document by a user using ‘IsFollowed’ property of SocialFollowManager. Based on the Follow Status, we invoke ‘Follow’ method on SocialFollowManager class, to follow a document.

The next step is to Implement a Private method called GetSecureString() to get the SecureString object (representing the  password of Office 365 SharePoint site).

private static SecureString GetSecureString(String Password)
       {
           SecureString oSecurePassword = new SecureString();

           foreach (Char c in Password.ToCharArray())
           {
               oSecurePassword.AppendChar(c);

           }
           return oSecurePassword;
       }

Finally, we invoke the FollowDocument.StartFollowing method from Main method in Program.cs

static void Main(string[] args)
        {

            FollowDocument oFollow = new FollowDocument();
            oFollow.StartFollowing();
           
        }

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In this article, I’d deal with how to add a Calender App to Office 365 E3 public SharePoint site.  I came across this scenario when I was designing an Office 365 public facing site for the User Group in Chennai. When you subscribe for an Office 365 E3 subscription, you’ll get a public facing Sharepoint site.

You’ll see a Calender App missing in the Site Contents when you try to add an App. You need to employ an work around to achieve this one.

Add Custom List App

Go to List Settings –> Advanced Settings –> Enabled Management of Content Types

Add from existing Site Content Types

Click Ok.

Change new button order and default content type and set Event as default content type

Now we have added the Calender App and we create events here.

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Microsoft SharePoint product team has officially clarified yesterday that they are deprecating managed code in Sandbox Solutions.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sharepointdev/archive/2014/01/14/deprecation-of-custom-code-in-sandboxed-solutions.aspx

This will impact us if we are working on migration to Office 365 SharePoint online.

If you have customization in existing SP 2010 environment, please consider the following alternatives if you want to move to Cloud.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/richard_dizeregas_blog/archive/2013/07/16/app-approaches-to-common-sharepoint-customizations.aspx

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I was wondering if there is a way to add external users to SharePoint Online. The external users are nothing but people who don’t have user accounts in the SharePoint Online environment. The access to external users can be provided by sending them an invitation through e-mail. I’ve learnt that we can send the e-mail invitation to any type of e-mail address such as *.gmail.com, *.yahoo.com or *.yourowndomain.com. However to log-in to the SharePoint online environment, the e-mail account has to be associated with a valid Microsoft account.

Click Share

Now the a email invite will be sent to the invitees (external users)

Open the e-mail invite and click the link on that.

To accept the invite, you need to have a valid Microsoft account.

This completes the sign-in process for the external user to the SharePoint Online Team site using a valid Microsoft account.

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